Buffs in the spotlight as journey continues vs. Hawkeyes in Sweet 16
The bags under the eyes of associate head coach Toriano Towns were as big as the bags he packed for Seattle on Wednesday.
But, hey, this is March and there is no time for rest for the Colorado women’s basketball team, which will face Iowa in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament on Friday in Seattle (5:30 p.m. MT, ESPN).
“Well, T hasn’t slept in a long time,” CU head coach JR Payne said. “He doesn’t sleep a lot during the season. He’s just working really hard to figure out how we can defend, how we can get stops, how we can make sure that our team is in the right mental space to be locked in on our opponent.”
Towns isn’t alone in lacking for sleep. For the entire program, it’s already been a whirlwind week as the Buffaloes enjoy success they haven’t had in a long time.
Last Thursday, the Buffs (25-8), seeded sixth in the Seattle 4 regional, traveled to Durham, N.C., to prepare for the NCAA Tournament. They knocked off 11th- seeded Middle Tennessee, 82- 60, on Saturday night and then tipped off at 9 p.m. Eastern on Monday against third-seeded Duke.
CU fought through an emotional and physical 6153 overtime upset of the Blue Devils to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in 20 years.
After returning home Tuesday afternoon, CU flew to the other side of the country Wednesday afternoon to get ready to take on Iowa, which might be the best team the Buffs have faced all season.
In the midst of their cross- country travels, the Buffs spent some time in the spotlight. CU met with the local media before practice on Wednesday, talking in front of the largest contingent of reporters the Buffs have seen in years.
“Wow, this is awesome!” Payne said as she sat down for her portion of the news conference. “How wonderful to have so many people in a room to talk about Colorado women’s basketball. We’ve worked really hard to have the opportunity to have you guys here and to be able to celebrate the incredible young women in our program and all of their hard work to get to this point.
“We’re incredibly fired up for moving on to the Sweet 16 and lots of hard work going in. We’ve only been home for less than 24 hours and we’re leaving again, but excited to have an opportunity to practice and keep playing.”
CU is one of the surprise teams in the Sweet 16. Only Mississippi (No. 8 in the Seattle 4 region) and Miami (No. 9 in the Greenville 2 region) are seeded lower than the Buffs.
Payne, however, said she saw this potential in the Buffs before the season began.
“I think if you ask anyone in our program, we knew that we had the potential to be special,” Payne said. “It takes a lot of hard work and togetherness and a little bit of luck with health and injuries and things. But I think all along we knew we had this in us.”
The reality of the situation is still settling in a bit, however.
“The emotions after (beating Duke), I think they probably range from just joy, excitement, pride, and disbelief of like, ‘Are we really going to the Sweet 16?’ And kind of reminding ourselves, yes we are and yes we’ve earned it,” Payne said. “It was just pretty awesome.”
Point guard Jaylyn Sherrod called it an “overwhelming feeling” to get to the Sweet 16, but also acknowledged the Buffs aren’t done yet. They’ve reached this point by not settling and not looking ahead and they’re aiming to stay on that course.
“Me personally, I still think we have a lot more to prove and I’m always gonna carry that chip on my shoulder,” Sherrod said. “We’re not expected to win the next game we go into and we’re not expected to win any more of the games we’re about to go into. So I think we take that personal and it’s a mentality around this team. We respect everybody, but we fear no one.
“We’re going to walk into every game fearless, we’re going to walk into every game with a chip on our shoulder and we believe that we can beat anybody in the country. That’s been the message all year and nothing’s gonna change now.”
The bags under the eyes of Towns and the rest of the coaches, however, were created by the work being done to prepare for an Iowa team that won the Big Ten tournament and was ranked No. 3 in the final Associated Press poll.
“It is definitely a challenge when you have to play such a great team,” Payne said. “Every team that’s playing now is so good, it takes so much attention to detail and so much focus.
“Before we get to game time, we’ll have kind of narrowed down to here’s two or three things that we must do to be successful, but we’re not quite there yet.”